An expected surge in the number of applications for kindergarten spaces has set off a near panic as parents on both sides of the border clamor for places. Ming Yeung reports.

In August, Wu, a Hong Kong father, quit his well-paid job to take up another full time occupation - getting his son into kindergarten. That endeavor, in places like North District and Tai Po, is like entering a combat zone. Wu applied at nine pre-schools, queuing overnight at two. He wasn't alone. In October, parents could be seen camped out at kindergartens just to get in line for application forms. Some took more than 10 when they finally got to the head of the line.

Competition was especially intense at preschools boasting exemplary reputations and located near to border checkpoints. Up in that area, four in every five adults in the queues were from the mainland. Some had been hired as intermediaries by parents too busy to wait in line themselves.

The unprecedented stampede set off alarm bells at the government level, and efforts commenced to create contingency plans to allay concerns among parents about shortages of preschool places.

Administration officials believed two primary issues merged to touch off the mania. The number of applications was limited because kindergartens couldn't afford to handle the administrative workload generated by heavy applications. That got parents hyperventilating and storming the gates of preschools in the effort to stay ahead of the expected fierce competition.

"Parents' mindset is very strange. We don't understand why they feel they have to apply to many kindergartens. This is the root of the problem, not the number of (available) placements," said Hong Kong Kindergarten Association president Mary Tong Siu-fun on a television program in early October.

The Education Bureau then declared that parents wanting to register children at kindergartens in the two districts must obtain a letter of authorization from the bureau.

Under the new arrangement, kindergartens would provide online registration to unlimited number of applicants. Dr Gail Yuen Wai-kwan, assistant professor & associate head from the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, criticized the measure as "unreasonable" because kindergartens lack the manpower to process all applications.

The bureau will announce the names of successful applicants in stages over the next few weeks. Parents are being advised to accept only one offer of placement, said Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim.

A three-day "temporary registration" period will commence in mid-December. After that, schools will submit their lists of registered students to the bureau. The bureau then will undertake to identify pupils registered at more than one school.

The bureau will send letters to parents of children registered at only one school, allowing them to complete the enrollment process.

Then came the note of discord, as the bureau stressed children would attend kindergartens in their own neighborhoods. The declaration appeared to pit the interests of local children against cross-border families who called the decisions biased and unfair. Mainland parents threatened to take the matter to court. Hong Kong parents were quick to accuse the mainlanders of trying to appropriate resources intended for the people of Hong Kong.

Smack in the middle was the Education Bureau, which got it from both sides for its evident failure to anticipate the problem and to lay proper plans in advance.

Mary Tong agrees that officials should have seen the situation coming a lot sooner and to have assisted the kindergartens through the crisis.

Poser over places

Parents already have started asking, how many places should Hong Kong create next year? During the Year of the Dragon, 95,000 babies were born in Hong Kong, 6,000 more than in the previous year. Among the number, 35,000 were born to parents from the mainland. Next year, those kids will turn two, and their parents will start applying for preschool.

A paper submitted to the Legislative Council by the Panel of Education on October 28 reveals that government officials do not believe it possible to make an accurate prediction. Because so many variables are involved, the numbers could change.

"Of particular relevance is that related to babies born in Hong Kong to mainland women. However, it is difficult to predict with accuracy the actual number of such babies who would settle in Hong Kong and if so, when," the paper states.

"Later this year, we will get hold of the respective information for the 2013/14 school year. The information will help us make a more accurate estimation on the overall demand of KG (kindergarten) places in the 2014/15 school year."

There are 241,000 kindergarten places throughout Hong Kong, the paper shows. That's more than enough to meet the estimated demand expected for the 2014/15 school year, of about 168,000.

Eddie Ng said that there are about 4,000 K1 places in North District. The number of children qualified for K1 places (three-year-olds) is also 4,000. The supply should meet the demand precisely. The breakdown, according to Census and Statistics Department figures, reveals there are 2,500 three-year-olds in North District. That leaves only 1,500 of the 4,000 places cited by Ng, for children born in Hong Kong to non-Hong Kong-resident parents.

The number of cross-boundary kindergarten students jumped nearly fourfold from 2008 when 1,780 students were enrolled, to 7,439 in 2012. Most enrollments from the mainland are distributed among North District, Tai Po, Yuen Long and Tuen Mun. The mainland number is expected to keep going up until 2016.

The education chief said more places can be added at some kindergartens by optimizing their campus capacities. Mary Tong rejected arguments that many kindergartens are seriously constrained by classroom space limitations and manpower shortages. The teacher-student ratio is regulated, she noted. Increasing enrollment requires raising the number of teachers.

Apart from the need for more teaching staff, professor Gail Yuen said kindergartens lack enough common space for kids to play and exercise, adding that increasing the number of students will affect the curriculum and further restrict play time.

"Increasing quotas in kindergartens entails additional costs. Is the Education Bureau going to shoulder that or do the schools have to shoulder it themselves?" Tong asked.

Tong identified the root of the current chaos as the lack of a comprehensive, centralized network to allow kindergartens to exchange enrollment information. "All kindergartens are privately run so we can't appropriate government resources for central allocation," she stressed.

Without a central allocation system, Yuen reckoned, the Education Department would be unable to achieve its aim of allowing children attend kindergartens in their neighborhood.

Yuen said the government expects the problem will spontaneously disappear when the demand for kindergarten places from cross-border students dissipates from 2016 onwards. That indeed will be the effect of the current administration policy which became fully effective this year, restricting maternity care facilities in Hong Kong for the exclusive use of Hong Kong residents. Expectant mothers from the mainland are no longer permitted to come to Hong Kong to have their babies.

But they fail to see facilitating cross-boundary students as a continuing need, Yuen pointed out. Many cross-border students are the children of Hong Kong permanent residents who have chosen to live in Shenzhen. Many also work there but want their kids to have a Hong Kong education.

"We should put children's welfare as our highest priority to ensure their healthy development."

Ultimate solution

The ultimate solution is 15 years of free education, Yuen said. "At present, there is no planning for kindergartens at all and this will cause many problems. North District is a good example."

She doesn't see the events in North District as a catalyst for speeding up free kindergarten education, although there is a community consensus in favor of that already.

"The kindergartens that oppose free preschool education are those well-established ones with no difficulty admitting a full roster of students or that enjoy stable operations already," Yuen observed. She added that only about 10 percent of about 1,000 non-profit kindergartens have declared opposition to the free kindergarten proposal.

Yuen proposed that the government encourage bodies to set up designated kindergartens specific for Hong Kong children in Shenzhen, similar to the funding mode of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme used in local non-profit kindergartens.

"Parental involvement is an integral part of quality education. The current measures fail to address the needs of cross-boundary students. There are primary schools in Shenzhen for Hong Kong kids, why don't we have the same in kindergartens?" Yuen queried.

The Committee on Free Kindergarten Education was set up in April to examine the feasibility of the plan. It has two years' work ahead of it before coming up with a conclusion.

"What does it mean by 'free'? Free for whole-day or half-day kindergartens? Will funding will be given to parents or institutes?" Yuen asked. "Education is not business. Its effectiveness cannot be evaluated on the basis of how much you invest, especially in kindergartens, because the impact won't be shown in the short term."

Contact the writer at mingyeung@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 12/06/2013 page3)